DEMON’S SOULS
Peering through the fog to launch day
Someone om get Boletaria’s architect ar on the phone. ph We’re making a complaint? No way. They deserdeserve a hefty tip for the remodelling they’ve done here. Ever since the announcement of Bluepoint’s latest remake
(the team also did the fab Shadow Of The Colossus for PS4) there’s been some debate over how much the visuals of the original should be improved, as the style of that first game was so distinctive. But having seen extended footage of PS5’s Demon’s Souls we rest easy.
“THE KINGDOM OF BOLETARIA IS FILLED WITH OOZING DETAIL.”
The unique atmosphere of the foggy, ruined, and throwninto-chaos kingdom of Boletaria remains present, but now it’s filled with oozing, dripping detail. It’s a world on the brink of utter ruin, where death lingers ever-present. Death permeates everything, right down to the rubble, dust, and cobwebs that litter the crumbling passageways. Each of those areas still feels lived-in, though, and there are visual distinctions between the fading areas.
It’s a dark game, then, but there’s a real depth to the colour palettes and environments on show, highlighted by the stillremaining patches of green or the flickering of flames. The lighting adds so much, from the sparks of clashing metal to the way things are thrown more into shadow the further away from you they are. Decay has never looked so good – it’s nothing short of sumptuous.
GOING BUMP
Sound has always been important to the Souls series: detecting the moans of enemies or the sound of feet on stone can often make the difference between life and death – it’s all a part of the hard-asdragon-scale difficulty. That’s all here in even greater detail, with things like specific wooden floorboard squeaks giving
the areas real personality. We don’t often espouse the virtues of a good bit of creaking in this magazine, so know that this has really impressed us.
Everything in this remake feels so much richer: the corridors, rooms, and caverns all feel like they have purpose. But they’ve been recreated with great respect for the geometry and encounters that made the original game so memorable. This is a faithful, deep dissection that slashes to the heart of Demon’s Souls.
The core of the adventure to cleanse the kingdom is its careful and considered combat, something which over the years has become key to the Dark Souls series and the rest of FromSoftware’s games. The controls have been modernised slightly, but you still have to commit to your actions, and be wary of how enemies are going to attack you (and think about where they might be hidden in the nooks and crannies of the environment). This back-andforth of melee combat and magic is heightened not just by improved visuals and audio, but by the controller feedback too. You feel the weight of strikes, the power of a fire spell, and whether things like parries have been successful, right in your hands.
WORLDS APART
So far most of the action we’ve seen has been from the beginning of the game, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been teased with how the other areas are shaping up. All are accessed from the Nexus hub world (where the Maiden In Black can help you level up and other survivors you meet will gather), and from early on you can choose the order in which you progress through the different stages by travelling via mysterious archstones.
Deep in the fiery depths of Stonefang Tunnels you must fight through caverns scattered with creepy crawlies, and the cloying darkness of the Tower Of Latria where the flying Maneater lurks is riper with atmosphere than ever. There’s more life to these worlds – for example, the tree in the Shrine Of Storms is struck with lightning and erupts into flames – but sometimes those last vestiges of life are out to get you. The challenge is definitely still present and correct, so expect to see more than a few ‘You Died’ notifications before your journey is over. And don’t forget to ask some friends to help you if you get stuck. After all, that’s what friends are for, and in a world balancing on the knife-edge of calamitous ruin, that’s when you need them more than ever. The same goes for Boletaria, too.
“YOU STILL HAVE TO COMMIT TO YOUR ACTIONS, AND BE WARY OF ENEMY ATTACKS.”